Drilling for oil or gas in the Gulf of Mexico is increasing rapidly at
depths up to three miles. The National Commission on the Deepwater Horizon
Oil Leak concluded that inaccurate estimates of the leak rate from the
Deepwater Horizon caused an inadequate response and attempts to cap the leak
to fail. The first response to a submerged oil/gas leak will be to send a
Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) down to view the leak. During the response
to the Deepwater Horizon crisis, the authors Savas and Shaffer were members
of the Flow Rate Technical Group's Plume Team who used ROV video to develop
the FRTG's first official estimates of the oil leak rate. Savas and Shaffer
developed an approach using the larger, faster jet features (e.g., turbulent
eddies, vortices, entrained particles) in the near-field developing zone to
measure discharge rates. The authors have since used the Berkeley Tow Tank
to test this approach on submerged dye-colored water jets and compressed air
jets. Image Correlation Velocimetry has been applied to measure the velocity
of visible features. Results from tests in the Berkeley Tow Tank and
submerged oil jets in the OHMSETT facility will be presented.

To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2013.DFD.M22.4